Student Senate did something right. It rejected a proposal that would have charged each student a $1 per quarter fee, amounting to about $78,000 a year, for the study abroad program. Such à la carte fees create a slippery slope that could snowball out of control.
Study abroad programs are already funded by students -through the money they pay for scholarships and fees. Ohio University must decide if study abroad should receive more money instead of passing the buck to students. If students began paying individually for every program that asked for funding, the athletics department could ask for $5 per student, while the chemistry department asked for $3, all the way until we paid $6,000 for tuition, $3,000 for fees and $1,000 for randomly approved programs that started out as just $3.
It is routinely tossed out by those in favor of this a la carte use of student money that each students pays $65 for Ping Center and $60 for the new student center. But these are non-exclusive university services that, while not used by all students, can be. Study abroad is a selective program which is already funded by student fees. While all 20,000 students have the chance to use Ping or the student center, only 1,000 students participate in the study abroad program. There are a finite number of students who can benefit these fees and all students should not be asked to foot the bill.
What, exactly, is a 'reasonable effort?'
The Ohio Supreme Court is reviewing a ruling so bizarre it could have come from a television sitcom. A Medina County judge sentenced a man who owed $38,000 in child support to five years probation and ruled he must make all reasonable efforts to avoid procreation. Common Pleas Judge James Kimbler said the man in question, Sean Talty, 32, who had fathered seven children with five women before he turned 30, would then be able to work to pay off the support instead of serving jail time.
Probation? Absolutely. Sending him to prison doesn't help anyone and putting him on probation should be encouragement enough to make payments. But reasonable efforts -a farce at best. Kimbler doesn't even define what reasonable efforts means. Does that mean a condom, a vasectomy or implementing the rhythm method? It is also unclear how this measure would ever be enforced.
On top of all that, the government doesn't belong in bedrooms in the first place. The courts have no business legislating morality; it takes two people to make a baby, so should the judge have ruled all women who sleep with Talty be responsible as well? Of course not. In the end this ruling doesn't make sense and is little more than a ploy so that, come election time, Kimbler can say he's tough on crime
but cares about people. Creativity should be left in the bedroom, not in the courtroom.
Three strikes and we're all out
As states fight to keep prisons open despite mass overcrowding, even using ideas such as shipping inmates to other states, a new study shows life-sentences have gone up a staggering 83 percent in the past decade. In Ohio, 10.5 percent of all inmates are serving life sentences. These figures come largely from three strikes laws that carry automatic life sentences for any third felony conviction. Many of these three strikes inmates are non-violent drug offenders.
It is clear the prison system is broken. Getting tough on crime is not only ineffective but also costly. There is yet to be any clear evidence that deterrence is even effective to the criminal mind. One of the toughest prisons in the country is Tent City in Arizona. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio keeps all prisoners out in the desert heat in army-style tents, forces all men to wear pink underwear, has a neon sign reading vacancy and has brought back black and white stripped prison uniforms and the chain gang -all in the name of deterrence. But there's something else he brings back, and that's 60 percent of his prisoners. If the conditions were that a big a deterrent, one trip would be enough.
And if deterrence doesn't work, the cost of life imprisonment is certainly not worthwhile -the state pays $1 million per prisoner sentenced to 40 years. That money could be used more effectively for education or rehabilitation programs. 17
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